Adkins sacking 'known about for some weeks'

Glenn Moore

In the wake of Wednesday's draw at Stamford Bridge, when Southampton came from 2-0 down to draw, Nigel Adkins agreed that the comeback made it his team's best result of an increasingly impressive season.

In the wake of Wednesday's draw at Stamford Bridge, when Southampton came from 2-0 down to draw, Nigel Adkins agreed that the comeback made it his team's best result of an increasingly impressive season.

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Adkins sacking 'known about for some weeks'

Independent.ie

In the wake of Wednesday's draw at Stamford Bridge, when Southampton came from 2-0 down to draw, Nigel Adkins agreed that the comeback made it his team's best result of an increasingly impressive season.

Yesterday he was fired and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino, whose last coaching post was with Espanyol – until they fired him with the club bottom of La Liga in November.

As his successor let slip, even a Southampton win against Chelsea would not have saved Adkins, who took Saints from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons and leaves them three points clear of the relegation zone after just two defeats in 12 matches. Along the way he has earned the best win percentage of any Saints manager (54pc).

But his future was sealed during the club's bad autumn. Pochettino revealed he had been "researching" the Southampton squad "for weeks" while Vegard Forren, a Norwegian defender signed from Molde for £4m yesterday, said he had "known about the change of manager for a while".

trigger

The exit of Adkins has echoed his arrival in 2010, when Alan Pardew was sacked after a 4-0 win at Bristol Rovers. Pulling the trigger on both occasions was Nicola Cortese, the club's executive chairman. One football figure said: "Nothing would surprise me where he is involved, but don't quote me as he might sue."

Cortese is known within the game as a hard negotiator and he has in the past banned the local newspaper and the chairman of the Saints Trust, and fallen out with several ex-players, notably Matt Le Tissier. The Italian, a banker by profession, brokered the deal by which Markus Liebherr took over the club and has run it since the Swiss died three years ago.

Nevertheless, Adkins' dismissal came as a complete surprise to the manager, his staff and to supporters, some of whom said they were "disgusted" by the move. Even when Saints were bottom of the table, Adkins' name was chanted by fans.

However, Cortese may counter, so was Pardew's, but not for long.

Pochettino said: "(To win) the kindness of the supporters is the biggest challenge I have," and, while he will not be given the hounding Rafael Benitez receives at Stamford Bridge, he is unlikely to receive a warm welcome when Southampton host Everton on Monday night. A Spanish-style protest is planned with fans waving white hankerchiefs.

Lawrie McMenemy, Southampton's 1976 FA Cup-winning manager and a still a popular figure (though not with Cortese), spoke for many fans when he said, "I am shocked. With due respect to Pochettino what does he know about our game? What does he know about the dressing-room? Does he speak English?"

The answer to that query came at the new manager's unveiling when he spoke through an interpreter. Pochettino said in Spanish he had talked to Jose Mourinho "who is a good friend of mine" and been told "the best football in the world is being played here."

Adkins, a former goalkeeper who has been known to quote poetry in press conferences, came to prominence at Scunthorpe United, where he went from physio to promotion-winning manager.